Heaven Sent

A new showpiece for Roman Catholic education has taken root in the
most unlikely of locations.

The view from Galey Colosimo's office window is one most Catholic
school principals can only imagine. The Skaggs Catholic Center, spread
out over 57 acres in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper, boasts 75
classrooms, a 1,350- seat auditorium, equestrian trails, a television
studio, a day-care center, and the largest hardwood gym floor in the
state. Statues of saints dot the campus, and a one-hundred-foot cross
rises from a courtyard.

If that isn't enough to command attention, this spanking new
showpiece for Roman Catholic education has taken root in the most
unlikely of locations: a growing, middle-class town just 30 miles south
of Mormon Church headquarters in Salt Lake City.

"This is a one-of-a-kind facility for Catholic education," says
Colosimo, the school's principal. "People for many years have paid a
lot of money to go to Catholic schools that look like they are ready to
burn down. There is something inside those schools that is unique and
hard to turn away from. Here, we have the best in facilities and
people. That is a powerful combination."

And Catholic leaders are hoping people take notice. The school's
24-page, 4-color promotional pamphlet describes the center as the
culmination of "more than 1,500 years of Catholic philosophy and
teaching." Skaggs has hosted visitors from private, parochial, and
public schools about five times a month since it opened a year ago.
Bishop George Niederauer of the Diocese of Salt Lake City calls it a
"Catholic educator's dream."

Salt Lake's Catholic leaders did not set out to build a dream school
when they went looking for new classroom space in 1995. That changed
when multimillionaire Sam Skaggs called and essentially offered a blank
check. Skaggs, once the chairman of American Stores Co., a national
drugstore and grocery chain, contributed $55 million toward a new
school—an unprecedented gift in Catholic elementary and secondary
education.

At the time, Skaggs was a Baptist, though he and his wife, Aline, have
since converted to the Catholic faith. Notoriously private, they
declined to be interviewed for this story. But Skaggs' interest in the
religion is said to have been sparked by Catholic chaplains he met and
admired during his World War II military service. Even before the gift
for the new school, he had bankrolled some of the diocese's community
outreach.

The mogul's $55 million gift gave diocesan officials a rare chance
to think big. "Because they don't have enough money, most Catholic
schools are forced to be utilitarian in their outlook," says the
41-year-old Colosimo, who was a Catholic elementary school principal
before signing on to the Skaggs project. Eager to create the best
possible educational environment, the diocese decided to build a center
that would take students from the cradle to the brink of college.
Today, Skaggs is home to the Guardian Angel Day Care Center, with 200
children ages 6 weeks to 10 years old; St. John the Baptist Elementary
School, with 900 K-8 students; and Juan Diego Catholic High School,
with 250 students in 9th and 10th grades. Junior and senior classes
will be added over the next two years.

The diocese also wanted to create a distinctive campus, one that
honored the Catholic Church's past while preparing students for the
21st century. To that end, Colosimo and Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald,
the vicar general of the Salt Lake City Diocese and a former
superintendent of Utah Catholic schools, spent a year traveling to
about 100 religious, private, and public schools around the
country.

Officials eventually settled on a circular design, with a courtyard
in the middle—a nod to the church's monastic tradition. The
center has four computer rooms, four science labs, libraries for both
the elementary and high schools, and a computer network that links
parents and teachers.

Sister Karla McKinnie, principal of St. John the Baptist Elementary
and a Catholic school educator for 34 years, is amazed by the facility.
Before coming to Skaggs, she had worked at a Catholic elementary school
in Los Angeles with only eight classrooms. "Most of the schools I have
been in have either been falling apart or in need of constant upkeep,"
she says

‘We fail if we graduate 4.0 students who are not good
people.’

John Colosimo,
Vice Principal,
Skaggs Catholic Center

Administrators say the center's grand design sends a message that
education is about the development of the whole person—
spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. "Learning is
not just cognitive. It is about what type of person you are, too," says
Vice Principal John Colosimo, Galey's brother. "We fail if we graduate
4.0 students who are not good people."

This philosophy of learning has been well-received, helping Skaggs
expand the tiny beachhead that Catholic schools have established in
Mormon Utah. About 5,000 of the state's half a million K-12 students
are enrolled in Utah's 10 Catholic elementary schools and three
Catholic high schools, and that number is growing.

The Reverend Terrence Moore, pastor of a church to be built on the
Skaggs campus within the next two years, says that when he arrived in
Utah 32 years ago, Catholics and other religious minorities found
little tolerance. Catholics today feel much more at home, Moore says.
"We are viewed now as full participants in the local society."

Parents have been enthusiastic about the new school, even though its
tuition—$2,400 for grades K-8 and $4,850 for high school—is
slightly higher than the national average for Catholic schools. At one
point last spring, St. John's waiting list brimmed with 1,700
students—about 70 percent of whom were not Catholic.

At 11 o'clock on a Tuesday morning late last spring, the anchors of
Juan Diego News are scanning scripts, brushing loose strands of hair
into place, and checking last-minute camera angles for the live morning
show that will be broadcast to all high school homerooms. From Skaggs'
television studio, the sharply dressed anchors start the show with a
prayer—today is the Feast of St. Peter—and fill their
classmates in on the school's Christian-service requirements and
applications for next year's courses.

Buzzing around the studio with infectious enthusiasm is Patti
Garrison, who helps television production teacher Dan Tucker run the
class. On medical leave from a local CBS-TV affiliate, Garrison and her
husband, both Greek Orthodox, decided to send their children,
15-year-old Ryan and 3-year-old Wyatt, to Skaggs because of the strong
academics and disciplined environment. Having their toddler in day care
on the same campus is both a time saver and a comfort for them.

Garrison was initially anxious about how Ryan would fit into the
Catholic community—only about 20 percent of the high school's
students are non-Catholic. But so far, he hasn't had any problems. She
is most impressed with Skaggs' high expectations, especially compared
with the public schools that Ryan attended. "My son complains that he
has no social life because he has so much homework," Garrison says.
"They demand more, and that is a good thing."

Young people,
school officials say, hunger to explore questions that inevitably
touch on faith.

Ryan, a quiet young man at an age when having his mother in the school
can be slightly embarrassing, likes the fact that he is pushed
here—even if it means some wrinkles in his social calendar. "The
work is hard, but this place is better," he says. "Here they expect
more of you with the schoolwork and how you treat people."

Non-Catholic students are required to attend Mass at the school's
chapel but do not receive communion. School officials say they are not
seeking converts, but they encourage discussions about God, values, and
morality. Young people, they say, hunger to explore questions that
inevitably touch on faith.

Prayer and the spiritual life are "just part of the fabric here,"
says the Reverend Tom O'Mahoney, a religion teacher at the school.

Robert Kealey of the National Catholic Educational Association calls
Skaggs "a model for what can be done in Catholic education across the
country." But similar schools are not likely to be built without the
help of more benefactors like Sam Skaggs. "There are tons of people out
there with big dollars," says Monsignor Fitzgerald. "We hope this
offers them a sense of encouragement."

In the meantime, Skaggs officials are concentrating on shaping an
institution that has no history or traditions. "There are a lot of
firsts, and that is exciting," says Sister Patricia Riley, who heads
the campus- ministry office and recently started a community-service
program.

School leaders are also mulling over Skaggs' growth. The high school
could hold 2,000 students, vice principal John Colosimo says, but that
may not be the ideal size. "There are so many possibilities here," he
says. "You are only limited by your imagination."

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